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[2024] Thorpe Park: Hyperia - Mack Hypercoaster
- Thread starter Burbs
- Start date
tech
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Universe of Energy - Epcot (RIP)
As long as you remember to remove high heeled shoes before using the slide, then use your whistle to attract attention.
If they had a big slide for the lift they could double it up as a 90s Gladiators attraction.
KolonelKlink
TS Member
Just to say this episode is now available on iPlayer if you don’t want to wait for the BBC Two broadcast - John Burton et al feature:Looks like an opportunity is coming to see for ourselves why Hyperia does and doesnt work. Just watching the first in Hannah Fry's new series The Secret Genius of Modern Life, about the design and build of various things (air fryers tonight, exciting stuff!), and it seems like an upcoming episode might be covering Hyperia. There were loads of clips of it in the opening montage to the series. Most of her stuff is pretty in depth so could be interesting.
EDIT -the upcoming episodes does indeed include one titled 'rollercoaster'
The Secret Genius of Modern Life - Series 3: 3. Rollercoaster
Hanna uncovers the wild origins of the modern-day rollercoaster and gets the inside story on the UK’s newest, tallest and fastest coaster – Thorpe Park's Hyperia.
www.bbc.co.uk
NuttySquirrel
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Batman: Gotham City Escape
I wonder, does the programme get into the details of why it's so broken so much of the time?Just to say this episode is now available on iPlayer if you don’t want to wait for the BBC Two broadcast - John Burton et al feature:
The Secret Genius of Modern Life - Series 3: 3. Rollercoaster
Hanna uncovers the wild origins of the modern-day rollercoaster and gets the inside story on the UK’s newest, tallest and fastest coaster – Thorpe Park's Hyperia.
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Matt N
TS Member
- Favourite Ride
- Shambhala (PortAventura Park)
I haven't watched it yet... but let's hope that Hannah doesn't dissect Hyperia with a screwdriver like she's done with the subjects of many of the previous episodes!Just to say this episode is now available on iPlayer if you don’t want to wait for the BBC Two broadcast - John Burton et al feature:
The Secret Genius of Modern Life - Series 3: 3. Rollercoaster
Hanna uncovers the wild origins of the modern-day rollercoaster and gets the inside story on the UK’s newest, tallest and fastest coaster – Thorpe Park's Hyperia.
On the other hand, maybe it would help Thorpe figure out why the ride keeps breaking and/or stalling...
Seen the episode now, including the lift hill walk!!! Its a good episode about coasters in general, and the physics. As you would expect the Hyperia specific sections feel like a free advert on the BBC. Very much celebrating how "wonderful and groundbreaking it is". Having said that though, it does cover the period early summer last year when it includes news footage of the ride opening, then closing due to technical issues. Nothing at all is mentioned as to the cause of the closure. The most interesting, related directly to Hyperia, is when reference is made to the outer section, and how it was designed to be slow and to provide a decent amount of "hanging". As has been pointed out on this thread before, if you design a coaster to go slow for effect, there is always the risk it will go too slow. Maybe Mr Burton, who appears in the programme, is having difficult conversations with Thorpe Park and Mac Rides.
Secret Weapon
TS Member
Two points:-
1) Shawn from Theme Park Worldwide said in his recent Hyperia video that both trains have rolled back at some point over the past year, and so the issue isn't simply with one of the two trains, as I had previously speculated.
2) I found the recent Hannah Fry video very interesting, and I would recommend it. One thing that I found slightly misleading, though, was her claim that tubular steel is inherently stronger than solid steel; whilst this is probably true when comparing two sections of steel of the same length and mass (but different diameters), I'm not sure whether it's true when comparing two sections of steel with the same length and diameter (but different masses) - similar to comparing an I-beam to a solid steel beam.
Also: she didn't mention whether there were other advantages to using hollow tubes versus solid rods, such as being able to fill them with noise-dampening sand (which I think Nemesis Inferno has?), reducing cost, reducing the weight on the foundations, and possibly being easier to bend in the factory.
(She also used the phrase "secret weapon" when discussing Hyperia's restraints, which may or may not have been a reference to the codenames at Alton Towers, or perhaps to yours truly!
)
1) Shawn from Theme Park Worldwide said in his recent Hyperia video that both trains have rolled back at some point over the past year, and so the issue isn't simply with one of the two trains, as I had previously speculated.
2) I found the recent Hannah Fry video very interesting, and I would recommend it. One thing that I found slightly misleading, though, was her claim that tubular steel is inherently stronger than solid steel; whilst this is probably true when comparing two sections of steel of the same length and mass (but different diameters), I'm not sure whether it's true when comparing two sections of steel with the same length and diameter (but different masses) - similar to comparing an I-beam to a solid steel beam.
Also: she didn't mention whether there were other advantages to using hollow tubes versus solid rods, such as being able to fill them with noise-dampening sand (which I think Nemesis Inferno has?), reducing cost, reducing the weight on the foundations, and possibly being easier to bend in the factory.
(She also used the phrase "secret weapon" when discussing Hyperia's restraints, which may or may not have been a reference to the codenames at Alton Towers, or perhaps to yours truly!
)
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flyingguitar
TS Member
You are not wrong, the second moment of area essentially is how you can determine how hard it is to bend stuff, it essentially is about how much material is placed bas on the distance from the centre of bending (typically found for the centre of the beam), it is like trying to bend 2 bits of aluminium, east to do when they are flat, but when they are on edge it becomes much harder.
I-beams are really strong as the bending up/down is in the center, so you have the top and bottom plates that are adding a large amount of meterial to the very edges of the beam where the stresses are highest.
you do get an increase in strength based on solid beams, but it is very diminishing returns
you can see from the image, for a tube it dose have less moment of area, but that differnce will not be that large, untill you start to get to quite thin areas, as the center of the meterial isn't doing much work.
I could also see an argument that the tube is stronger (at the same diameter) as the solid tube as it not only has to support the train, it also has to support its own weight, I am not sure on any of the weights, stresses, etc in mack track but I would imagine given the thickness of the tube a significant amount of weight would be added by the meterial, for not enough added strength, potentially making it weaker for this senario.
Wonder if it makes a difference if you're bending it?? Perhaps the stresses on solid steel are greater as a result??
Either way, I'm not clever or brave enough to contradict Hannah Fry. Thought I also believe everything that Brian Cox says, and he did sing "Things can only get better" and now I'm beginning to doubt him.....
